Chief Registrar's Circular 17/2014

Posted: 20 November 2014

Suffixes for identification of Offices of the Masters of the High Court

1. Purpose
The purpose of this Circular is to create uniformity in deeds registries with regard to the application of Chief Master’s Directive 7 of 2014 which deals with the identification of the Offices of the Masters of the High Court.

2. Suffixes for Inter Vivos Trust registrations

Letters of Authority in respect of trust registrations issued on or after 15 September 2014 must, in terms of Chief Master's Directive 7 of 2014, contain a suffix after the registration number in order to enable the identification of the issuing office, for example IT 1/2014(G) for Johannesburg.

The following suffixes must be used for purposes of identifying the inter vivos trust files of the various Masters Offices:

OFFICE

SUFFIX

BISHO

H

BLOEMFONTEIN

B

CAPE TOWN

C

DURBAN

D

GRAHAMSTOWN

E

JOHANNESBURG

G

KIMBERLEY

K

MAHIKENG

M

MTATHA

U

NELSPRUIT

MN

PIETERMARITZBURG

N

POLOKWANE

L

PORT ELIZABETH

S

PRETORIA

T

THOYANDO

V

It remains the responsibility of the conveyancer who prepares the relevant deed or document for registration, to confirm whether the trust was registered before or after 14 September 2014, and to ensure that the correct suffix is included in the trust number.

Inter vivos trusts registered prior to 15 September 2014 are not affected and the trust numbers of these trusts will remain unchanged.

3. Effective Date

All deeds and documents lodged for registration on or after 25 November 2014 must reflect the correct information. A conveyancer’s certificate may be accepted to indicate the date of the registration of the trust in instances where it is uncertain whether a trust has been registered prior or after 14 September 2014 (only trusts registered on or after 15 September 2014 will contain the suffix after the registration number).

Applications and documents, excluding deeds containing an execution clause, signed before 25 November 2014 and not reflecting the relevant suffix, may still be accepted for registration.

A conveyancer’s certificate may be accepted in instances where transfer duty receipts do not reflect the relevant suffix in the trust number.

A section 4(1)(b) application need not to be lodged for the rectification of any deed that has been registered prior to the date of issuing of this Circular. A factual endorsement may be made to indicate the change in the registration number.

Reader Comments:

Melaney
07/08/2018:

Good day I have been working with trust documents for a while and for the very first time I came across a few trusts with the following the name of the trust and TM#### with no IT number allocated. For example NameTrust TM1234, no IT number to confirm, kindly advise what that TM is for.

Willem
06/11/2018:

Can anyone explain the reasoning behind this ruling?

Elizabeth
07/08/2019:

The purpose of this Circular is to create uniformity in deeds registries.

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